It’s Art When You Say It’s Art

Who determines what art is? You do.

Go to a modern art museum and you’ll begin to wonder where the line is drawn between what is art and what is not art. But maybe the perspective is just different, it’s not about the line drawn, it’s about where you stand–and if there even is a line.

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. — Edgar Degas

Maybe it’s partly the mathematician/engineer/geek in me, but have a look at the photo below. Someone either spent hours, four meetings, two discussions and a feedback session to come up with the masterpiece of bright color and straight lines. Or he/she just thought about it on the spot and just did it. If the latter was the case, what did their supervisor say? Did they notice? Did they complement them? Or even scold them for going outside of the norm? Who would even care? Who would even notice?

I did.

It’s a garden center in the middle of The Netherlands. I must have admired it for 10 minutes while my kids tried to get me to leave (to go look at the fish … it’s a big garden center). But it got me thinking. Isn’t that the point of art? To get you thinking? Or maybe thinking in a different way? Or to think at all? Or to think about something that you usually wouldn’t think about? Who knew that art could exist in a garden center? Someone did.

In the land of Rembrandt, anyone can be an artist. [Intratuin garden center, Barneveld, Holland]